The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-07-06
year by year since, you have added tc


reached nv State and Its march is stead
Ily southwark. Unless the laws of God
and nature change, the day is not far
distant when the raw materials OF your
State will be manufactured at home.
You have all the necessary elements
here. Instead of sending your cotton TO
New England or Europe to be manu-
featured into goods and returned to
you, factories will spring up here and |
weave it into fabrics for the clothing of |
the nations. 1t is an anomaly in bust |
ness to send raw material thousand |
miles away to be manufactured when
the facilities at your own doors, and
the God-given wealth of advantage In
climate, are yours. Labor Is cheap and
abundant. Your State produced, &C
cording to official statistics, $50, sos
bales of cotton in 1880. Only one
State, Texas, exceeded that number.
And yet, so far as | am informed, you
have but two cotton mills in the State
in successful operation. Ninety per
cent. of all this raw material goes to
other factories where it is woven and
then returned to you and sold at prices
to pay transportation both ways, the
profits of the dealer and the cost OF man
ufacturing. This is not as it should be.
All that profit should be made at
home.
Another item of your great natural
wealth is your timber. Daily the sup
ply of timber is diminishing. The rail-
roads, the factories, the great plains OF
the Northwest now so rapidly popula-
ting, are reaching out for the timbers,
| unsurpassed in quality and quantity
and covering your pine hills, valleys
and swamps.
| Such is the situation now; and your
| condition is a counterpart OF that OF
every other Southern State-yOur his
tory is a counterpart of their history.
Such have been the changes we have
witnessed; and, thank God, after almost
three decades of trial rs by fire our be-
loved South has emerged without stain
or dishonor-nay, more, her citizens to-
day are more loyal to the government
they once despised than are those who
subdued us. If we failed in our efforts
to secede, we are now the conservative
element that holds in proper channel the
Ship of State, and presents an lnsupera-
BILE barrier to that centralizing tendency
in government which is
MORE DANGEROUS THAN SECESSION,
The two great perils in cur system
| were, borrowing an illustration fren
physical science, what were termed the
centrifugal and centripetal forces. The
one was the dangerous tendency to fly
off, secede, assert and maintain theil
: own independence, and thus break III
the Union. That experiment we trieC
and failed in. The other, and no les
} perilous tendency, was centripetal-tht
tendency to merge and vest all power il
one consolidated, centralized govern
: ment which should wipe out State line
and local laws, and home-rule for tn
people.
If we went too far in seeking to set u
: for ourselves, our Northern neighbor
are certainly going too far in seeking t.
concentrate all power at Washington
and making a sort of paternal govern
e ment with an immense public crib a
e Washington into which to pour tn
e tithes of the people, and out of whic
:, to feed hungry horde of dead-beats am
: imposters. A conspicuous ILLUSTRATION
is the Pauper Pension Bill, lately vetoe
+ by the President, who was not afraid t
e do his duty, supported as he was by on
sou ODtTli HldliNCS anu INC pCINC
e element North That was whOlesOm
check to jobbing raids ON the Nati0na
. Treasury. A healthy sentiment in Op
position to this centralizing tendenc
should be cultivated, and the peopl
warned against this system, which, IN
checked, would lead to the destructio
= of our liberties. Local self-government
e home rule, and the exclusive supremac
e of State law in all except Federal ques
T tions, are the antidotes. And now tina
e we have recOunted
SOME OF THE CHANGES
: we have passed and the perils we hav
l escaped or overcome, let us ask, wher
5 is there an instance in human history i
e which brave people, subjected to sue
g trying ordeals, came through so trium
n phantly2 Their trials served to prov
), them the sublimest ensamples of tn
t Anglo Saxon race. Just as the bruise
e flower yields the sweetest perfume, 5
d they in their Affections, exhibited i
i clearer light their inherent excelIency
n and from their disasters raised then
o selves in the scale of manhood, and no,
e present to the world nobility superio
g to that of Greece or Rome in their palm
o lest days.
r Our lot fell upon eventful periods
;, periods big with events of vast impOl
d lance and wonderful change. We hav
0 within less than half a century mad
v more than our share of history. An
b now those of US who survived, and W
who are here as alumni of this our be
l loved alma mater, are confronted wit
S grave duties and tremendous respons
Y bilities.
The OLD INSTITUTIONS
under which we were reared, and tn
old civilization of the South have bee
swept away. A new era is upon us. A
age of marvellous progress has dawneC
We are brought face to face with tn
, intelligence, the push, the thrift of tn
! civilized world. The railroads and te
egraphs and telephones have annihils
, ted distance. They bring into dali
communication the isles of the sea an
the ends of the earth. Unless we besti
ourselves, the intelligence and industr
of others may push us and our childre
D aside, and occupy and own this fair LAND
4 We must educate our people. We mus
give to every child, white or black, tn
: | rudiments of an education. We mus
1 make better farmers and better mechaT
les of them.
I THE FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL
r is our only hope 1t should be made tn
I nursery, the preparatory department fo
l the College and the University Th
;, masses must be lifted from the ruts O
: illiteracy and grinding poverty. Ho'
e is it here within the sound of the bell
of this grand old institution? With
q a radius of twenty miles | venture t
e assert, you may find scores of men an
!, women, white as we'll as black, who ca
, neither read or write, who never go t
5 church, who never see bible, who Iiv
e in ignorance and perjury and want.
: And this condition of things is no
| confined to Mississippi. 1t pervades
| great portion of our Southern country
Go to your county towns on publ,
|, days, and the vast majority of the farm
l ers present will be found to be YOU
: copperas-breeches, one-gallows fellows
+ whose farming utensils are such as th
: patriarchs used; whose butchery of tn
: Kings English indicates an intelligence
L not superior to that of the inhabitant
9 of the cloudland of Tennessee, an,
a whose idiom Charles Egbert Craddocl
3 so ludicrously illustrates in the Prophe
:, of the Great Smoky Mountains. Thes,
| men are our neighbors and friends. w
r want to help them. We ought to edu
a cate their children. We ought to he'll
I lift them to higher plane of existence
| We can, by free schools, give their chill
dren fair start in the race of life. TIL
5 policy is not to make erudite scholar
, out of them, but give them, black an,
g white, a limited education. Not, a
Henry Watterson satirically said, "mak
Greek scholars out of all the little nap